Ultrabooks to Pick Up Steam at Expense of MacBook Air in 2013

Ultrabook shipments haven't reached the heights predicted by Intel and its partners this year but will start to really take market share in 2013, according to DigiTimes.

Ultrabook shipments haven't reached the heights predicted by Intel and its partners this year but the investment in ultra-slim laptops by the chip giant and others will start to really pay off in 2013, according to DigiTimes.

The Taiwan-based tech journal reported Wednesday that supply chain sources believe the market share of Apple's MacBook Air in the slim notebook category will slip from nearly 40 percent in 2012 to under 30 percent next year. The Apple product, believed by many to be the inspiration for Intel's ultrabook initiative, which kicked off in 2011, is not categorized as an "ultrabook" though it shares many of the same qualities laid down by the chip giant in its self-dictated guidelines for the product category.

Earlier this week, IHS iSuppli released a research report forecasting worldwide shipments of ultrabooks to max out at 10.3 million units this year, down considerably from the 22 million unit shipments the research firm projected earlier this year.

IHS also reeled in its forecast for 2013 shipments of the fast-booting, thin-and-light laptops, from 61 million shipments down to 44 million.

"There once was a time when everyone knew the 'Dude you're getting a Dell' slogan. Nowadays no one can remember a tag line for a new PC product, including for any single ultrabook," Craig Stice, senior principal analyst for compute platforms at IHS, said in a statement on Monday. "So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream. This is especially a problem amid all the hype surrounding media tablets and smartphones."

DigiTimes's supply chain sources, however, indicated that next year, if not a banner year for ultrabooks, will at least see the Intel-driven category take share away from Apple. The tech journal reported that sources believe the MacBook Air will capture 39 percent of the slim notebook market this year but that Apple's "market share will slip to 28 percent in 2013 due to increasing sales of ultrabooks."

Meanwhile, DigiTimes sources said Apple's Taiwan-based manufacturing partners and component suppliers like Foxconn, Quanta Computer, and Pegatron figure that unit shipments of the MacBook Air were in the 1.4 to 1.5 million range for September and will increase to 1.5 million units shipped this month.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.
More »